Seminars and Colloquia by Series

Minors of graphs of large path-width

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Thanh Dang – Math, GT
Let P be a graph with a vertex v such that P-v is a forest and let Q be an outerplanar graph. In 1993 Paul Seymour asked if every two-connected graph of sufficiently large path-width contains P or Q as a minor.mDefine g(H) as the minimum number for which there exists a positive integer p(H) such that every g(H)-connected H-minor-free graph has path-width at most p(H). Then g(H) = 0 if and only if H is a forest and there is no graph H with g(H) = 1, because path-width of a graph G is the maximum of the path-widths of its connected components.Let A be the graph that consists of a cycle (a_1,a_2,a_3,a_4,a_5,a_6,a_1) and extra edges a_1a_3, a_3a_5, a_5a_1. Let C_{3,2} be a graph of 2 disjoint triangles. In 2014 Marshall and Wood conjectured that a graph H does not have K_{4}, K_{2,3}, C_{3,2} or A as a minor if and only if g(H) >= 2. In this thesis we answer Paul Seymour's question in the affirmative and prove Marshall and Wood's conjecture, as well as extend the result to three-connected and four-connected graphs of large path-width. We introduce ``cascades", our main tool, and prove that in any tree-decomposition with no duplicate bags of bounded width of a graph of big path-width there is an ``injective" cascade of large height. Then we prove that every 2-connected graph of big path-width and bounded tree-width admits a tree-decomposition of bounded width and a cascade with linkages that are minimal. We analyze those minimal linkages and prove that there are essentially only two types of linkage. Then we convert the two types of linkage into the two families of graphs P and Q. In this process we have to choose the ``right'' tree decomposition to deal with special cases like a long cycle. Similar techniques are used for three-connected and four-connected graphs with high path-width.

Curvature and Isoperimetry in Graphs

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Thursday, September 28, 2017 - 09:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Peter Ralli – School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech –
This dissertation concerns isoperimetric and functional inequalities in discrete spaces. The majority of the work concerns discrete notions of curvature. There isalso discussion of volume growth in graphs and of expansion in hypergraphs. [The dissertation committee consists of Profs. J. Romberg (ECE), P. Tetali (chair of the committee), W.T. Trotter, X. Yu and H. Zhou.]

Multilinear Dyadic Operators and Their Commutators

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - 16:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ishwari Kunwar – Georgia Tech
In this thesis, we introduce multilinear dyadic paraproducts and Haar multipliers, and discuss boundedness properties of these operators and their commutators with locally integrable functions in various settings. We also present pointwise domination of these operators by multilinear sparse operators, which we use to prove multilinear Bloom’s inequality for the commutators of multilinear Haar multipliers. Along the way, we provide several characterizations of dyadic BMO functions.

Results on the construction of whiskered invariant tori for fibered holomorphic dynamics and on compensated domains.

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Monday, May 15, 2017 - 10:05 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Mikel Viana – Georgia Tech
We first discuss the construction of whiskered invariant tori for fibered holomorphic dynamics using a Nash-Moser iteration. The results are in a-posteriori form. The iterative procedure we present has numerical applications (it lends itself to efficient numerical implementations) since it is not based on transformation theory but rather in applying corrections which ameliorate notably the curse of dimensionality. Then we will discuss results on compensated domains in a Banach space.

Analysis and Numerical Methods in Solid State Physics and Chemistry

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 10:00 for 2 hours
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Lei Zhang – Georgia Institute of Technology
We present two distinct problems in the field of dynamical systems.I the first part, we cosider an atomic model of deposition of materials over a quasi-periodic medium, that is, a quasi-periodic version of the well-known Frenkel-Kontorova model. We consider the problem of whether there are quasi-periodic equilibria with a frequency that resonates with the frequencies of the medium. We show that there are always perturbative expansions. We also prove a KAM theorem in a-posteriori form.In the second part, we consider a simple model of chemical reaction and present a numerical method calculating the invariant manifolds and their stable/unstable bundles based on parameterization method.

Approach to equilibrium in Mark Kac's model

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 09:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Hagop Tossounian – Georgia Tech –
Kinetic theory is the branch of mathematical physics that studies the motion of gas particles that undergo collisions. A central theme is the study of systems out of equilibrium and approach of equilibrium, especially in the context of Boltzmann's equation. In this talk I will present Mark Kac's stochastic N-particle model, briefly show its connection to Boltzmann's equation, and present known and new results about the rate of approach to equilibrium, and about a finite-reservoir realization of an ideal thermostat.

Statistical Inference for Some Risk Measures

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - 14:30 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 114
Speaker
Yanxi Hou – Georgia Institute of Technology –
This thesis addresses asymptotic behaviors and statistical inference methods for several newly proposed risk measures, including relative risk and conditional value-at-risk. These risk metrics are intended to measure the tail risks and/or systemic risk in financial markets. We consider conditional Value-at-Risk based on a linear regression model. We extend the assumptions on predictors and errors of the model, which make the model more flexible for the financial data. We then consider a relative risk measure based on a benchmark variable. The relative risk measure is proposed as a monitoring index for systemic risk of financial system. We also propose a new tail dependence measure based on the limit of conditional Kendall’s tau. The new tail dependence can be used to distinguish between the asymptotic independence and dependence in extreme value theory. For asymptotic results of these measures, we derive both normal and Chi-squared approximations. These approximations are a basis for inference methods. For normal approximation, the asymptotic variances are too complicated to estimate due to the complex forms of risk measures. Quantifying uncertainty is a practical and important issue in risk management. We propose several empirical likelihood methods to construct interval estimation based on Chi-squared approximation.

Subdivisions of complete graphs

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Monday, April 10, 2017 - 15:00 for 2 hours
Location
Skiles 006
Speaker
Yan Wang – Georgia Institute of Technology
A subdivision of a graph G, also known as a topological G and denoted by TG, is a graph obtained from G by replacing certain edges of G with internally vertex-disjoint paths. This dissertation has two parts. The first part studies a structural problem and the second part studies an extremal problem. In the first part of this dissertation, we focus on TK_5, or subdivisions of K_5. A well-known theorem of Kuratowski in 1932 states that a graph is planar if, and only if, it does not contain a subdivision of K_5 or K_{3,3}. Wagner proved in 1937 that if a graph other than K_5 does not contain any subdivision of K_{3,3} then it is planar or it admits a cut of size at most 2. Kelmans and, independently, Seymour conjectured in the 1970s that if a graph does not contain any subdivision of K_5 then it is planar or it admits a cut of size at most 4. In this dissertation, we give a proof of the Kelmans-Seymour conjecture. We also discuss several related results and problems. The second part of this dissertation concerns subdivisions of large cliques in C_4-free graphs. Mader conjectured that every C_4-free graph with average degree d contains TK_l with l = \Omega(d). Komlos and Szemeredi reduced the problem to expanders and proved Mader's conjecture for n-vertex expanders with average degree d < exp( (log n)^(1/8) ). In this dissertation, we show that Mader's conjecture is true for n-vertex expanders with average degree d < n^0.3, which improves Komlos and Szemeredi's quasi-polynomial bound to a polynomial bound. As a consequence, we show that every C_4-free graph with average degree d contains a TK_l with l = \Omega(d/(log d)^c) for any c > 3/2. We note that Mader's conjecture has been recently verified by Liu and Montgomery.

The Boundary Method and General Auction for Optimal Mass Transportation and Wasserstein Distance Computation

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - 14:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
J.D. Walsh III – Georgia Tech School of Math –

Please Note: Dissertation advisor: Luca Dieci

Numerical optimal transport is an important area of research, but most problems are too large and complex for easy computation. Because continuous transport problems are generally solved by conversion to either discrete or semi-discrete forms, I focused on methods for those two. I developed a discrete algorithm specifically for fast approximation with controlled error bounds: the general auction method. It works directly on real-valued transport problems, with guaranteed termination and a priori error bounds. I also developed the boundary method for semi-discrete transport. It works on unaltered ground cost functions, rapidly identifying locations in the continuous space where transport destinations change. Because the method computes over region boundaries, rather than the entire continuous space, it reduces the effective dimension of the discretization. The general auction is the first relaxation method designed for compatibility with real-valued costs and weights. The boundary method is the first transport technique designed explicitly around the semi-discrete problem and the first to use the shift characterization to reduce dimensionality. No truly comparable methods exist. The general auction and boundary method are able to solve many transport problems that are intractible using other approaches. Even where other solution methods exist, in testing it appears that the general auction and boundary method outperform them.

Weighted Inequalities via Dyadic Operators and A Learning Theory Approach to Compressive Sensing

Series
Dissertation Defense
Time
Thursday, March 30, 2017 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 202
Speaker
Scott Spencer – Georgia Institute of Technology –
This thesis explores topics from two distinct fields of mathematics. The first part addresses a theme in abstract harmonic analysis, while the focus of the second part is a topic in compressive sensing. The first part of this dissertation explores the application of dominating operators in harmonic analysis by sparse operators. We make use of pointwise sparse dominations weighted inequalities for Calder\'on-Zygmund operators, Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator, and their fractional analogues. Dominating bilinear forms by sparse forms allows us to derive weighted inequalities for oscillatory integral operators (polynomially modulated CZOs) and random discrete Hilbert transforms. The later is defined on sets of initegers with asymptotic density zero, making these weighted inequalitites particulalry attractive. We also discuss a characterization of a certain weighted BMO space by commutators of multiplication operators with fractional integral operators. Compressed sensing illustrates the possibility of acquiring and reconstructing sparse signals via underdetermined (linear) systems. It is believed that iid Gaussian measurement vectors give near optimal results, with the necessary number of measurements on the order of slog⁡(n/s) -- n is ambient dimension and s is sparsity threshhold.The recovery algorithm used above relies on a certain quasi-isometry property of the measurement matrix. A surprising result is that the same order of measurements gives an analogous quasi-isometry in the extreme quantization of one-bit sensing. Bylik and Lacey deliver this result as a consequence of a certain stochastic process on the sphere. We will discuss an alternative method that relies heavily on the VC-dimension of a class of subsets on the sphere.

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